Rozen Maiden: Die Erwachende Rose Distel
by GaryA
Summary: This is a story that continues from where the anime ended. The dolls are trying to regain their lost comrades while Kirakishou appears with her own plans for the dolls. This fiction contains action, humour and possibly drama and romance.
1. Chapter 1

About this fanfiction:

The fiction is timed right after the second season of Rozen Maiden, including information from Overture and possibly ideas from the manga and drama cds. I presume you have at least seen the two seasons and most likely overture if you've found this fic.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rozen Maiden nor the characters in it, they belong to Peach-Pit. However I do claim the new plot and possible new characters that come with it as my own. This applies throughout the fic.

I'm aiming for "slow narrating"-type, which most of the books usually have. This also means that I hope to write somewhat long chapters except maybe some minichapters marked with the previous chapter's number and a half or something similar. If I ever decide to make them, they are most likely small "filler" chapters. I think the main chapters will take looooooong to write because I'm quite the slow writer. The German title etc. I used to keep the Rozen Maiden's own style at naming episodes and titles. There's a section after each of the chapters for author's notes, thanks etc. I'll start off slowly and build up from there so bear with me.

I'm writing this fanfiction mostly for myself, to get out some ideas that are going around in my head and need to be put somewhere otherwise I'll go insane. More insane I mean. I hope you enjoy reading it as much(preferably more) as I did writing it.

* * *

**Die Erwachende Rose Distel**

_Awakening Rose Thistle_

**Chapter 1**

Der Tag Danach

_The Day After _

It was a windy day. A gust of wind rattled the bushes in the Sakurada family's yard. Clouds were hanging low and it seemed that it could rain at any given moment. It was only one day after the great battle that took place in the Rose garden, where Barasuishou was finally defeated and destroyed in her desperate father's loving embrace. The weather was indeed very fitting for the day's mood.

"Could you pour me another cup of tea?" asked Shinku in her usual composed tone.

Jun poured her a new cup but didn't say anything. Suiseiseki was silently staring at her half empty cup. Everyone felt relieved that they were still alive and kicking, poor Jun, but at the same time sad for they had failed to bring back Souseiseki's and Hina Ichigo's Roza mysticas. Having caught a glimpse of her father for the first time after so many many years, Shinku seemed to feel a hint of happiness inside but was concealing it well. The words he uttered to her made her feel at ease.

"There is another way…" She thought out loud so quietly that no one but Shinku herself could hear the words.

Jun's head was filled with thoughts about recent events. Enju, crumbling Barasuishou, Rozen, the lost mysticas. It was all quite mind-boggling and along with the feeling of sympathy towards the "evil doll" it made him silent. After pouring the tea he took his seat next to Suiseiseki and after a short awkward moment he asked,

"Suiseiseki, would you like some cookies with your tea?"

"No, I'm fine -desu…" she replied quickly, not even bothering to look at Jun.

She had been feeling miserable ever since she lost Souseiseki but she had hoped to regain her twin sister's mystica. Events did not go well for her and she was defeated by Barasuishou while trying to protect Kanaria. Where was Souseiseki's mystica? Shinku had said that she lost Hina Ichigo's mystica after the battle, so did Suigintou still have it? Did Suigintou lose the mystica like Shinku? Thinking wasn't her forte and all these matters made her lose her appetite and end up just circling the teacup's sides with her index finger.

"You know, Nori is soon coming back from the lacrosse practice and she'll make us some dinner, so try to cheer up Suiseiseki?" Jun tried to console her and strike up some conversation to switch the mood, even though he wasn't really in the mood for talking himself.

Suiseiseki looked up at Jun and tried to smile but the half-heartedness was too obvious.

"Kunkun will start soon. I will not forgive you, Suiseiseki, if you watch his program with that face. Honestly now," Shinku snapped from the other side of the table. As she came down from her chair and proceeded to the living room, she continued,

"By the way, I asked Holie to deliver a dinner invitation to Kanaria. We need to discuss what we'll do from now on."

"A-ah, okay sure, I guess that's fine," Jun said hesitantly.

He still remembered the one time Kanaria had poisoned the food before she befriended everyone. In the end Jun was the only one who had suffered the consequences in the form of a stomach ache. The nasty kind. Shinku went and sat on the couch, Jun hastily following her in to the living room. Suiseiseki finally came when the opening credits had already gone past and was sighing heavily. She sat next to Jun and turned her eyes to the TV. Jun patted her head and smiled, before turning back to watch Kunkun's first part of the season finale.

- - -

"So why did you invite me over -kashira?" Kanaria asked and slipped a slice of sweetened omelet, tamagoyaki, in her mouth.

Everyone was sitting at the dinner table and eating the dinner Nori had made after coming home. The meal was composed of mainly vegetables and pasta plus some extra tamagoyaki for the guest. Shinku had cleared a small area in front of her so she could be seen well as she was going to speak up to the others. Having a body the size of a small doll was inconvenient sometimes.

"Now that Barasuishou is gone and we know that she wasn't a real Rozen Maiden, along with the information I heard from our father…I think it's time for us to think about our future," Shinku explained.

"O-ho-ho-hoo! So that's why you needed me, Kanaria, the most brilliant doll of the Rozen maidens -kashira!" Kanaria chirped.

"Planning is my specialty and I-" She tried to continue but was interrupted by Shinku.

"This is a matter that involves us all, so it was natural for me to call you to this meeting."

"Eugh," Kanaria grunted in reply. Jun was hardly paying any attention to anywhere else except his dinner and Shinku poked him in the ribs with her cane.

"This involves you too. Such an uncaring servant is an embarrassment for a lady like me."

"I'm listening! Stop poking me already! I just want to eat this before it gets cold…" He tried to defend himself.

"Now that I have everyone's attention, let's get to the point. Everyone already knows that we were defeated by Barasuishou…" As Shinku was starting her speech, Suiseiseki suddenly jumped on her feet standing on top of her chair.

"I was only defeated because this minibrain didn't run away in time -desu!" Suiseiseki yelled and glared at Kanaria.

"What!? I came back to help you -kashira! You were about to be crushed by Barabara -kashira!" Kanaria yelped back.

"Bah! I was just about to launch my secret att-"

"Krhm!" Shinku grunted. "Now, will you two be completely quiet for the next five minutes?" She said with a heavy tone which could break ice.

After a few frightened stares from Suiseiseki and Kanaria, she decided to continue.

"A-hem! Like I said, we were defeated by Barasuishou. Jun told me that after Barasuishou got all of the Roza mysticas she crumbled and disappeared in a flash of light along with Enju."

Jun nodded in agreement.

"She wasn't a real Rozen Maiden after all. This means that there should still be one left…" Shinku quickly took a glance at everyone.

"I'm not really interested in that -desu. I just want Souseiseki back! M-m-maybe even that puny Ichigo as well…but that's only because I'm bored and there's nothing to do -desu…" Suiseiseki blushed a bit.

"Honestly, you just can't stay quiet for a minute or two, can you?" Shinku frowned at Suiseiseki who lowered her head while keeping a slight pink tone on her cheeks.

"Well, since we don't really have any clues on the seventh doll, I think we can talk about the matter of missing Roza mysticas. When I woke up, I noticed that Hina Ichigo's Roza mystica was gone. Jun, tell them."

Shinku poked Jun lightly with her cane.

"Hmm…well, when Enju and Barasuishou disappeared, all the Roza mysticas shot out after the light calmed down and disappeared before I could follow any of them closely…" Jun lowered his head. After a split second he raised his chin for he remembered something.

"Wait, I saw them for a brief moment when Rozen came to collect Shinku!"

"…And?" Shinku pleaded for him to continue.

"There was this bright light…then I heard him speak…about how there are other ways to become an Alice…and when I came to, he was gone and I found you from a room nearby, alone."

"Father said that all the dolls defeated by Barasuishou will return back to normal, but where did the mysticas go?" Shinku pondered. The others had been quiet for a while now, listening intensely. Kanaria decided to open up her mouth since Shinku seemed to ask for a second opinion.

"Maybe he stashed them somewhere -kashira?" Kanaria wondered.

"I think that's possible but I don't understand why Father didn't give them back to the previous winners?" Shinku tilted her head.

"Why are you so sure Suigintou didn't get Souseiseki's Roza mystica -desu?" Suiseiseki suddenly asked Shinku with a stern voice.

"Hmm…I guess you're right, I presumed that since I didn't get Hina Ichigo's Roza mystica back, she wouldn't get Souseiseki's Roza mystica back," Shinku replied.

"And how are we going to find out for sure?" Jun looked at Shinku.

"We'll ask her," Shinku said sternly.

"Haah? ASK HER?" Jun was dumbfounded.

"To be more precise, you'll ask her," Shinku added.

"WHAT?! Why me?!" Jun burst and turned slightly blue.

"It's not that easy to send her an invitation, you know. When her Roza mystica was inside me, I saw her in a hospital…with her medium, I think she was called Megu. I think it would be good for her if you went to see her. She seemed…like someone who had lost her will to live. Plus, I think you still might need some more…social experience as well," She said while poking Jun again with her cane.

"Bah! Alright, I'll go and visit her. Where did you say she was again? In a hospital, but where?" Jun finally had given up.

"Hmm…I wonder. The memories are mostly gone now that I don't have Suigintou's mystica anymore, only a few flashes remain," She replied slowly.

"How are we going to find this Megu then?" Jun waved his hands, clearly overreacting in frustration.

"Oo ho ho hoo!" Kanaria suddenly chortled. Everyone turned to look at the seemingly amused doll.

"I, Kanaria, the most intelligent of the Rozen maiden dolls, have that figured that out precisely and accurately -kashira! Finding out Suigintou's base was as easy as a walk in the park!" she chirped.

"So, where is it then?" Jun said, looking like he wished that Kanaria had kept her mouth shut. Kanaria whipped out a local map from her small round handbag she had taken with her. She spread the map on the table while others were moving the dishes aside.

"It's right at the opposite of an old church -kashira! Now let me show you…"

- - -

A dark blue baseball cap rolled down the sidewalk, apparently the wind had robbed someone of his headwear. The cap rolled a few feet and hit a nearby lamppost, flapping a bit from its side, waiting for the next gust of wind to set it free again. Jun kneeled down and quickly swiped the cap while it was still on the ground.

"There you are!" Jun gasped for air and groaned.

"Bah, why is it only me who's going all the way there…and I even have to buy some flowers to go with?" he whined.

He could hear Shinku's voice in his head, reminding him that it's polite to take some flowers to the lady you're going to visit. _Why should he take flowers to her?_ He barely knew her. On top of that, flowers aren't that cheap and Jun didn't have much to spare. Sure, he used to order a lot of useless junk from websites but he always returned them before it was too late.

"And what am I going to say once I'm there? 'Hey, is Suigintou here? I need to ask her if she still has Souseiseki's Roza mystica'?! That's ridiculous!" Jun sighed as he shook his head and continued his walk towards a nearby florist.

He happened to walk past "Enju Doll", the den of evil which had caused Jun many frowns, yet taught him a lot. A lot of fuss seemed to go around the shop today. However the people around the shop were no customers since they were carrying large boxes and crates into two separate trucks. This caught Jun's curiosity and he went closer to get an eyeful of things. Almost everything you could see from the display window was now gone. Two of the men were having a short break, smoking heavily near the entrance of the shop. Jun's curiosity overcame him as he strolled closer. He just had to find out what was going on.

"So, whatcha gonna do with the crap in the backroom?" a large and burly man in bluish overalls questioned the smaller yet still quite a sturdy man.

"Dunno, I hurd that theys sold them dolls, not dem unfinished uns," the smaller man replied with a funny accent.

"So we gonna dump that crap in the auction as well?"

"Yus, I think dats the best way to go," he replied and scratched his head.

At this point Jun got close enough for them to notice him. The larger man glanced at Jun like a bulldog at its watertray. Jun got startled a bit but quickly collected himself and opened his mouth,

"Umm…what's happening in here?"

Larger of the two decided to answer him,

"We're movin' these weird dolls from here. For some reason this place is supposed to be empty by tomorrow and these dolls were sold in one huuuuuge clump."

"Everything?!" Jun was amazed.

"Well…not everything…the stuff in the back will be taken into an auction which is held later this month."

"Ah, I see…well, I'll leave you to it then."

Jun turned away and made his way through the trucks and back to the sidewalk. _Who could've sold the dolls? Enju himself? Maybe, but it might've also been Laplace's demon as Shirosaki_. But now was not the time to think about that. He set his course towards the florist again. As he was walking down the street a sudden strong gust of wind threw his cap off his head again and set it rolling down the road. Jun stared blankly at the cap which was rolling further and further away. With a small insane grin and a few not-so-wisely chosen words he ran after it, disappearing quickly from the sights of the hardworking men.

- - -

_Un petit floeur eh? Why does every florist have to have a French name anyway?_ Jun thought by himself as he entered the shop. As he walked forward he could just feel the warm air push him back. The fragrance of dozens of flowers filled the air. Several rows of shelves with different flowers opened up to his right and left. The counter was just a few meters ahead from where he stood, right at the door. Seems like he was the only one there at the moment since the lady behind the counter, a lady at her 20's stood up from her seat and greeted him,

"Welcome! Is there anything I can do for you?"

Taken aback a bit, Jun stammered,

"U-um, I need some flowers…"

"My yes, that's why people usually come in here!" she said excitedly as Jun blushed a bit.

"I'm going to visit someone…she's a patient in a nearby hospital…"

"Ah, I see, well the most common choice is red roses"

"Red roses eh?" Jun fell into his thoughts.

_Didn't Shinku say something about avoiding red roses?_

"_Don't forget to buy her flowers Jun. But I would avoid giving her red roses…I don't think that certain someone enjoys seeing them…" _Jun recollected Shinku's words. He wasn't really sure why but he didn't really care. He just wanted this to be over with. Jun shook his head.

"Is there anything else?"

"Well…let's see…" The florist held his hand at her chin, thinking deeply.

After a short moment she quickly made her way to a pink-reddish flower which seemed to have several blossoms tucked in together. She nimbly picked a few and then hurried deeper between the shelves, out of Jun's sight. Before Jun managed to even take a good look around himself, she appeared again. This time she was holding a bunch of small white droopy looking flowers.

"There we go! These are Carnations," she pointed at the red flowers,

"And these are Snowdrops" this time petting the small white flowers.

"They both have a meaning of good health among other things so I think these would suit well!" she cheerfully explained.

Jun nodded in agreement.

"I'll make it cheap for you! 1200…no, let's make it 1000 yen for cheering up a sickly girl!" She winked at Jun who blushed again. He really wasn't good with this kind of people. Quickly paying for his purchase, he made his way to the door. He briefly looked back and found her waving at him happily. Giving her an odd smile he stepped outside of the shop and headed for the hospital.

- - -

A large spoon slowly circled around a plate filled with something one might barely call "porridge". The slender hand holding the spoon let it drop, shaft sharply hitting the edge of the plate making a small clink. The girl to whom the thin hand belonged let out a sigh. Her brown eyes shifted from the gray glue to a bright red apple. Poking it slightly she watched it wobble a bit. This apple she'd save for later. Something so pretty would be a suitable offering to the angel she so adored. The bread…she thought she could take a small bite out of it and down it with the small cup of water that was brought with the other dishes. The wind swayed her long black hair and she turned to look at the window. Today it was only slightly open because of the wind. She refused to completely shut it so the nurse had left it open, just a little bit.

The room didn't offer anything interesting to look at, just light purplish walls, movable curtains to protect her privacy when it was needed, few cabinets over her head and a table with a flower vase and some withered flowers. This is why she usually stared outside of the window, sitting or lying down on her bed. Today, however the flowers were especially interesting. She'd poke them and look at the petals fall down to the floor or to the table.

"I wonder when I will finally fall to the floor…" she wondered out loud.

She turned back to watch the window and wait for someone special. She was worried for she hadn't seen her yesterday or today. _Had something happened?_ Usually she could see her at least once a day, more often lately. But now, nothing. _Maybe if she sung a bit?_ She likes her singing and usually comes to listen. As she began to clear her throat a bit, she heard someone shouting something down below.

"Someone stop that damn cap!" that someone shouted.

It seemed to be a young boy chasing after his baseball cap while clumsily carrying a flower bouquet. She giggled a bit when the boy finally caught his cap while falling down and rolling a few times. _He seems funny, one of those overly serious types who get caught up in things and when they mess up they start to pout cutely. Ah, now he got up and quickly ran inside the hospital with dark red cheeks. Oh well, I guess I'll try singing to my dark little angel._ She sat back to her bed clearing her throat again. She begun with a small hum and slowly you could start hearing words to fill that lonely melody.

- - -

Suiseiseki hurried down the stairs. She had heard loud banging noises from downstairs when she was tending to her sleeping twin sister. Suiseiseki reached the end of the stairs and silently peeked behind the corner to the dining room, where the large table was, to satisfy her curiosity. As her head popped behind the corner, it was met with a cloud of flour. Blinded by this she jumped backwards and rubbed her eyes furiously.

"Wha-wha-what is this -desu?!" she yelled as she stepped into the dining room.

Much to her surprise it was Shinku, baking cookies again? Now she was holding the rolling pin high up in the air and with a small shriek she slammed the pin onto the dough, sending another large cloud of flour flying. After the first shock had passed, Suiseiseki had to look away. Covering her mouth as her cheeks bulged, she tried her hardest not to burst into laughter. Shinku glared at Suiseiseki over her shoulder.

"One word and I shall have you as my new dough," she said menacingly to Suiseiseki who withdrew a step backwards. She quickly recovered though and suddenly she realized something. With a slightly amused and evil grin she pointed at Shinku and chirped,

"Ahahahaa! Now I know why you told Jun to go there alone -desu! You even told Nori to go shopping for some rare teas so it would take a while -desu!"

This caused Shinku to stagger as she tried to cut between Suiseiseki's words.

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

With a big grin Suiseiseki gave her a reply,

"You wanted to bake cookies again but didn't want Jun to see how you fail miserably -desu!"

This caused Shinku to blush as crimson as her dress was. Clenching the side of her dress she tried to recollect herself. But Suiseiseki continued her attack.

"But you can't even use a rolling pin right -desu! How sad is that desu!?"

Shinku looked defeated. At this point Suiseiseki was highly amused and decided to play the "nice doll".

"Maaaaybe if you ask politely, I might be able to teach you a bit of what I know -desu," she smirked at Shinku.

Shinku turned to Suiseiseki and looked sternly at her, still blushing from before. She slowly opened her mouth only to close it quickly. Suiseiseki was getting annoyed but decided to wait for her to break. Shinku swallowed slowly, opened her mouth and with a quiet whisper she let out the words.

"P-please teach me."

At this point Suiseiseki was already ready to burst out victoriously but decided not to tease her anymore.

"Ahahaa! I guess I'll have to show some of Meister Suiseiseki's incredible skills and just maaaaybe something might rub off to you -desu!" she almost shouted this out of sheer happiness. As Shinku was still blushing, Suiseiseki tightened up her apron and joined Shinku on top of a chair to reach the table.

"Now shall we begin Meister Suiseiseki's cookie baking lesson -desu?!"

Shinku nodded, still keeping the slight blush on her cheeks.

- - -

"Let's see…it should be in this corridor…"

Jun slowly walked and eyed all the doors coded with a letter and a number. As the numbers grew larger, a faint sound became clearer.

"Hmm, what's this?" Jun pondered. "I think someone's singing…that's quite beautiful…such a sad yet pretty voice…"

He stopped at the door labeled C17. Hearing the song quite clearly now, it was obvious that the singer must've been behind this very door. Pressing his ear on the cold wooden door he listened to the words.

"…_bad memories far away_

_The quiet night continues_…" 

He had closed his eyes just to hear her better but didn't notice that he was pressing the handle with his left hand.

"AH?!" he yelped in surprise.

He came crashing down as the door suddenly opened. The girl startled as the door suddenly swung open and the kid she saw rolling on the street just rolled into her room. Dumbfounded, Jun sat on the floor with the bouquet on his right arm and glasses slightly tilted.

"Who are you?" Megu asked tensely.

"Umm... ehh... hello?" Jun replied with an awkward face.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Megu repeated with a stern frown.

Jun fixed his glasses and stood up. With a determined look he took a few steps closer to Megu and pushed the flowers in front of her. With a surprised face she asked one more time:

"Eh, what's this? Who are you again?"

"Umm, I'm Sakurada Jun. I came to meet you. I brought some flowers," he nervously answered with simple sentences that seemed to take forever to say.

"I see," Megu replied as she eyed this weird young boy. Avoiding her gaze, Jun ran his eyes around the room and noticed the withering flowers in the vase on the table. After a small hesitation he moved towards the table.

"Y-you don't mind if I change the flowers?" he hesitated.

Megu looked at the flowers for quite a while, she kind of liked the dying flowers. Then again, the new flowers looked pretty as well.

"It's okay. Please do."

Jun took the vase and brought it over the trashcan. He grabbed the old flowers which he might've recognized as primroses, had he been a florist, and dropped them into the can. There seemed to be some water left, so he just put the new ones in there, avoiding yet another walk with more possible stumbles. He noticed that Megu had been following his every movement closely, like a mouse watching a cat circle around its prey. He mustered his courage and tried to break the ice a bit.

"Umm… I liked your singing, it was really pretty."

He still showed his back, pretending to be perking up the flowers. Megu sighed a bit and turned her head to look out of the window.

"I guess so…"

Jun turned to look at the window as well. One could see an old church right from the window. It was abandoned and some of the colorful mosaic windows were broken and the paintjob was partially gone. It looked like it was going to be demolished soon but it held a certain mysterious feel to it. It was hard to put into words, but Jun felt a bit sad at the state of the church, yet somehow it made him feel at ease. Maybe that's why she was also looking at it constantly? Jun decided to inquire her about this rundown church.

"A church, eh…? Is there something in there or why do you keep watching it?"

"I…met someone there…" Megu responded.

"Oh…I see…"

Jun walked to the window to take a closer look. The trees were swinging as the wind blew hard on them. It was getting dark and the streets were filled with people hurrying back to their homes. The church didn't seem to be any different from this angle and the person Megu had met made him think. _Could she mean her? Nah, she could've meant anyone. Then again, I can't lose anything if I ask her about this person, can I?_ Jun faced Megu.

"This person… can you tell me about… her?" Jun decided to address the person as her, possibly leading Megu on.

"Ah, she… she's my angel of death!" she exclaimed happily.

_Bingo!_ And to make things even more certain, he noticed a familiar black feather peeking under her bed.

"I see… so you really are Suigintou's medium?" Jun said, looking firmly at Megu who looked genuinely surprised.

"Y-you know her name? WHO are you?" Megu looked alarmed, which was quite abnormal for her, being calm as a saint usually.

"Well…let's say that we've been placed at the same position," Jun tried to smile. This seemed to calm her down a bit.

"Then… you've also found your angel of death?"

Jun snorted loudly at this.

"Krhm, more like an angel of pride with a bad case of arrogance."

Megu tilted her head, not knowing for sure what he meant with that.

"She goes by the name Shinku," Jun continued. Megu looked slightly surprised again.

"Shinku? She mentioned Shinku quite a few times… she hates her…" Megu sounded somewhat sad.

"Yeah…I guess that kind of makes us enemies… seeing that we're the mediums of those two," Jun put up a forced smile.

"I guess so… but you brought me flowers… and it's between those two, isn't it?"

Jun nodded. He felt happy that they didn't need to act like enemies because of what happened between those two dolls. Turning his head away from Megu, he stammered,

"Umm… is she around here? There's something I need to ask her."

This gave Megu a deep frown. With sad eyes she replied,

"She hasn't been here for two days, I don't know what could've happened to her…"

"I think she should be okay, no need to worry. Maybe she's just sulking somewhere, I think she needs some time for herself. At least after all that happened," Jun tried to keep a consoling voice.

_Well, she did die once, but she was fixed too._ Jun figured that Suigintou would be somewhat embarrassed about dying again, in Shinku's lap none the less. The two didn't notice a certain someone floating closer.

"Someone's with Megu…and talking about me?" Suigintou said quietly to herself.

She flexed her wings and floated close to the window's corner and peeked in. She saw something she didn't like at all. It was that cursed medium again.

"What is that fool doing here?!" she hissed while clenching her fist. Biting her lip she decided to listen to what they were talking about.

"She's okay? I'm so glad," Megu smiled happily.

"Maybe she would finally fulfill my only wish…"

"Which is…?" Jun inquired.

With a gentle smile she replied poetically,

"For her to finally use all of my energy…for her to let me sleep eternally."

Jun stood shocked, with eyes as wide as plates and jaw almost literally at the floor.

"Why on earth do you want that?!" he gasped.

She looked at him like it was too obvious.

"I'm a glass with many breaches and cracks. If someone would pour wine in me, it would spill to the table…I'm broken…I'm junk," as she explained, she closed her eyes and continued to smile serenely.

Jun was dumbfounded. _She wanted to die this badly?!_ Even during his own depression spikes he never really thought about death.

Suigintou frowned. _She's still saying that_. She lightly clasped her dress with her right hand in frustration. Even after saying a hundred times that she wouldn't use Megu's power because she didn't need it. At least that's what she always says, even though she had been bested before. _But look at Shinku's medium. Such a stupid face he's making right now…_

"But dying means the end of everything! It's stupid to wish death that badly! It's just so ridiculous and… sad!" Jun yelled like there was no tomorrow.

The last word made Megu frown deeply. Still keeping her composed and calm voice she replied,

"You haven't been through what I have… most of your life, caged in white rooms, trapped in beds from which one shouldn't stand up. I hate that… and I don't need your pity, it never helped me…"

"It's not like I don't know what it means to live a life of hell…" Jun countered gloomily.

"Every day was the same. I ordered random items from the net, wasted my days doing nothing. I was trapped inside my own home," he looked at her.

"I may not have been sick from my body, but my mind and my heart was a wreck."

Megu tilted her head. This young lively boy has been through a crisis? It was rather hard to believe, since he didn't look like he'd have had any troubles in his life so far.

"…Please, do tell me more?" she inquired.

"I don't really like to go into details, but let's say that there was some… ehh… trouble in school and up until recently I have been a hikikomori," Jun explained.

Megu smiled a bit while crossing her hands on her lap,

"But you're healthy now. There's no chance like that for me, that's why I wish to die. To end everyone's worrying and pitying," she mused.

Jun was clearly irritated by now. _What is it with this girl? Death this, death that. Also, what's so wrong in pitying?_ This was unbearable.

"Why on earth do you hate pity so much?" he demanded.

"I don't like it. People always making a lot of hassle for a broken body. It's like they want to help me to make them feel better about themselves."

"Megu…" someone whispered behind the windows without being heard by anyone.

"Pity…I think you're misunderstanding pity… pity is a feeling of wanting to help someone who is in need, it's not an emotion to make someone feel better about themselves. That's just arrogance or something the like. Pity makes you want to help someone stand on their own feet, to make someone better or equal to you in something," Jun scratched his head a bit in search of words.

Behind the window, Suigintou was fuming in anger. Grinding her teeth and clenching her fists she was almost about to crash through the windows to get inside and run this midget through with her sword. She ran her nails on the wall leaving deep scrapes on it. _How dare he?! He does not know anything about pity or having been pitied and lowered to mere scrap. How dare he lecture Megu about pity?!_

Jun continued, "You see, pity is supporting someone. Maybe it might start as pity, feeling sorry for someone but as the time passes, it can turn into…well… full support. It's silly to think that someone pitying you doesn't really deep down in themselves want you to get better. I mean…it's a wish that you could get better, some leave it at that, some help you themselves."

Jun took a breather and looked at Megu for reactions. She looked quietly and firmly at Jun. She said calmly,

"Is that all you have to say? If so, please leave now."

"I see…" Jun poked his glasses and started to walk towards the door.

A few steps before the door he stopped.

"Just one more thing. Once your…angel comes back, tell her that fighting isn't the only way to become Alice."

Megu's expression did not change after hearing this. _If Suigintou didn't fight, she wouldn't need to use her power and…_ Megu shuddered. _That wasn't good at all_.

Jun opened the door and took one more glimpse at the long haired girl, sighed deeply and stepped outside.

"I guess the visit is over then," he said to himself and left.

Megu was irritated. Rolling the end of her hair in her right hand she decided to lay down, but couldn't. she was too agitated to just lay down and relax. She didn't even want to sing anymore. _Aah, how frustrating!_

Suigintou's expression was blank. She didn't know what she should feel right now. Those piercing words from Jun, _"Pity is support"? And what was last thing he said? "Fighting isn't the only way to become Alice"?_

"Then…what are we supposed to do?" Suigintou said to herself.

Suigintou pushed the window open and slowly floated inside the room. Hands by her sides, escorted by a few falling feathers she sat on the window sill facing inside. Megu looked very happy to see her.

"Ah! Welcome back Angel!" she greeted Suigintou and waved her hand a bit.

"I haven't seen you here for two days! What happened?"

"It's really none of your business," Suigintou gloomily replied.

"You went with the others? To finish up the Alice game?" Megu hit the head of the nail.

"You didn't use enough of my power…" she frowned at Suigintou.

"I said I do not NEED your power!" Suigintou snapped back, but was secretly a bit happy that Megu had already recovered.

"Then…did you win? Are you Alice now?" she asked out with curiosity in her voice instead of intention to retort.

Suigintou was silent and looked down at the floor. She didn't want to admit that she had been defeated yet she couldn't lie to Megu. On top of that, the words Jun had said were fresh in her mind. Megu seemed to notice that something was wrong but decided not to dig any further.

"Oh well, I'm glad that you're back. I don't know what I would've done without my angel," Megu gave the biggest smile Suigintou had ever seen her make.

Suigintou looked at her still keeping her head down. Megu took a fork with a slice of the apple she had peeled and pointed it at Suigintou. She smiled at her again and asked,

"Want some apple?"

- - -

Black smoke was slowly oozing out from the oven which had suddenly turned into a cremator much to Shinku's dismay. Suiseiseki was watching the television when she smelled something weird. She hopped off from the couch and as she approached the kitchen, she realized what it was. After a few steps she was already running towards the kitchen.

"Turn it off, turn it off -desuuu!" Suiseiseki shrieked.

"I told you to put the oven at 175C(350F), not 275C(525F) -desu!"

Shinku looked at the oven in shock as her precious cookies were turning into coal. Suiseiseki pushed Shinku aside who fell on her butt still having eyes full of disbelief. Suiseiseki grabbed the handle and pulled the shutter open, releasing a black cloud of smoke right on her face. Her eyes teared up and she started to cough uncontrollably.

"My…cookies…Kunkun…" Shinku said in shock.

She had seen how her new happy looking Kunkun-cookies had started to twist and turn as if they were experiencing pain like no other. Meantime Suiseiseki was trying to clear her eyes and was running around, trying her hardest to get out from the cloud which was indeed hell-bent on following her.

"Shinku! Do cough something -desu! I can't cough see anything -desu!" Suiseiseki shouted at the top of her lungs, making her cough even more as she breathed in the black smoke.

Shinku finally managed to get up and going. She turned to Suiseiseki who was still running around screaming.

"Suiseiseki, calm down now," Shinku commanded in vain.

Suiseiseki couldn't hear, speak or see anything.

"Suiseiseki! Honestly, what a noisy child she is!" Shinku commented and walked towards Suiseiseki.

"Shi- cough! Where cough -desu?" she tried to talk but failed miserably.

As Shinku came closer, Suiseiseki started to hear a word or two between all the coughing and ran towards the voice.

"Now, I ask you not to-" Shinku was cut short by Suiseiseki who was now running towards Shinku with high velocity.

Before Shinku could act she was engulfed by the black cloud that surrounded Suiseiseki. Now Shinku was also coughing, yet she would've been lucky if it was just that. Suiseiseki bumped into Shinku within the black cloud sending Shinku flying back towards the dining room table's leg. Hitting her back hard on the table leg, Shinku winced and let out a suffocated yelp. Suiseiseki found Shinku with her hands and grabbed her tightly.

"Sh- cough I cough sorry -desu" she tried to apologize.

Over their heads was a large bowl of discarded dough. Something no one would ever want in their stomachs or anywhere else. Yes, Shinku's first try at cookie dough. She had made way too much and according to Suiseiseki, it smelled funny. That bowl full of hate towards dough-kind was now swirling above them, ready to rain back the hate and bitterness right on top of them. The second the cloud disappeared, Shinku and Suiseiseki found themselves watching up in sheer terror.

A split second later, if you really listened closely, you could hear two screams of pure horror deep down in your heart, making you shiver in pity.

- - -

"I'm home!" Jun informed as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

Sniffing the air, he smelled something weird.

"What's this? Something's burning? Nori! Are you here? Shinku? Suiseiseki?"

He didn't receive a reply. A bad feeling crawled up his spine as he headed in the direction of the putrid smell. When he arrived, he noticed that the oven was on and the shutter open releasing hot air to the kitchen. Right in front of the oven was a pile of something gray and it seemed to be as hard as rock. The smell seemed to be emanating from both, the oven and the pile of gray cement.

"What's this? It smells disgusting! Why would anyone plant a pile of cement in front of our oven?" he wondered out loud.

"Wh-what?! My cookie dough, a disgusting pile of cement?! He must be joking!" shocked Shinku mumbled to Suiseiseki who was stuck right in front of her under the pile of hardened cookie dough.

"This isn't exactly luxurious skin lotion you know -desu!" Suiseiseki retorted.

The sound the dolls made was way too silent for Jun to hear even though he was just beside the pile. He was too concentrated on the streams of black smoke pouring out from the oven.

"Oh why did I have to listen to your foolish ideas Suiseiseki?" Shinku whined.

"It's your fault -desu! You're the one who made this miserable pile of land filling! If this was normal dough, it would've stiffened in the heat and we would've been able to crack it off easily -desu! But nooo, you made this Shinkustein's monster, why didn't you add bolts while you were at it -desu?!" Suiseiseki raged.

"How dare you insult a dough made by a lady! You should be thankful for getting this privilege!" Shinku violently snapped.

"Eeeeh?! You must be out of your mind -desu!"

Jun took out the coal crispies and turned off the oven. Setting the cookie sheet aside he turned to the gray pile. Inspecting it carefully he noticed that it seemed to be moving back and forth a bit. He decided to kick it lightly, receiving a small whimper as a reply.

"Well this is odd."

He kicked it much harder this time, tipping it on its side. He could now see two pairs of legs and some green and red hemlines sticking out from a 17cm (7 inch) diameter hole. Jun snickered. This was too good to be true. He couldn't resist the chance to make fun of the cursed dolls he often found himself being troubled with. He was barely able to pick it up crouching and puffing heavily. He slowly walked outside and placed it on the lawn upwards. He admiring the gray pile for a while in self-satisfaction. It didn't resemble anything other than a pile of cement but it was impossible for him to not say the next line:

"Perfect garden gnomes!"

"WHAT?!" "WHAT -desu?!"

Now the two voices were clearly audible and furious. The ring on Jun's finger started to glow red and green and as hot as molten lava. Letting out a few painful sounds Jun held his finger with his other hand trying and failing to ease the pain. Jun looked at the pile quickly and noticed several cracks appearing on the surface. It seemed wise for him to run while he still had legs attached to his torso. Running back inside, he hoped to be able to hide but alas, it was not to be so.

Bursting in a flash of green and red light Suiseiseki and Shinku broke through their solid prison.

"Ga-Garden gnomes?! His insolence has gone too far!" Shinku shrieked, emanating a blood red glow.

"You're right, Shinku! I will make him eat your cookies -desu!" Suiseiseki added from inside a poison green aura.

The two hurried inside with enough lust for blood to wither the grass and plants as they passed them. Truly Jun was going to learn the true meaning for "Hell hath no fury like a doll scorned." And so, yet another loud cry of agony could be heard echoing in the wind only to disappear under the noises of the nearby traffic.

Later Nori came home and after she gave the dolls and Jun an earful for messing up the front yard and the kitchen, the Sakurada household settled down for the night. At least most of the inhabitants of this house were able to sleep without wincing horribly in pain and agony all the time. The darkness creeped to the neighborhood and even the wind calmed down before the encircling blackness. And so night fell on the first day after the great battle at the Rose garden.

* * *

Author's notes:

Whew! That took me a while to write! On and off for about 2 months, wondering whether I should really write it or not. I'm actually quite glad I did, the feeling of actually writing something yourself is quite exhilarating. I wanted to start this thing slow and steady, trying to keep it somewhat stern but keeping the comedy in it as well.

As for the Celsius/Fahrenheit thing… Japan uses a metric system, so I intend to keep it in metric but including parentheses for inches and Fahrenheit for easier understanding. First I was only going to write what they say in metric but I think that would be awkward, having them change all the time between "said" and "described" text. Also I decided not to include any Japanese words other than names which are pretty much hard to translate or are straightly used names such as doll's names and tamagoyaki for example. Of course I wouldn't remove desus, kashiras etc. it's just not right.

The comedy scenes were probably the hardest to write. It's not easy to write comedy with the slow describing style, but I think I got a few good lines in. That is, at least I myself laughed at some, I hope I'm not the only one laughing at my own jokes as usual . Also Jun's speech was something I had to think about…I had to try to keep his words wise yet a bit childish…oh well, I guess it turned out ok.

I decided to add this section and "random interesting points" in the end of each chapter, just for the heck of it, I kind of like to rant away aimlessly sometimes so bear with me.

Random "interesting" points:

The title for this chapter was pretty easy to come up with since it's exactly what it is. The first day after the battle. And no, chapter 2's name won't be "and the day after the day after the battle". As for the title for the whole fic was a pain. Other than having "awake" in one form or another, I was pretty much out of ideas. The "awake" part came from the fact that 2nd season had "dream" in it. For the latter part, I'll let you figure that out, not that you'll actually try to find out anyway Oo. That reminds me, if there's anyone who's fluent in german and english both and willing to help me a bit, please contact me for some minor translation help.

At first I wasn't sure what to call the mansion in which they fought against each other but in the end I settled with "Rose garden" which was the name of episode 11 in träumend.

While deciding Megu's room number, I decided to use C17. Sounds pretty random? Well, C was for "see" and in Italian culture, the number 17 is considered unlucky. When viewed as the Roman numeral, XVII, it is then changed anagramatically to VIXI, which in the Latin language it translates to "I have lived", the perfect tense implying "My life is over." (originally I remembered that VIXI meant death, thus C17 -- "see death" but "see, my life is over" fits as well). I could've gone with C4, in which the 4 is most of the asia's unlucky number for 4 reading as "shi" which is the same for death…but I liked 17 more since it's my lucky number.

Primroses have a meaning of sadness and youth among other things. Also with the snowdrops, Kirakishou's german name could be "beautifull snowdrop cristall" (direct translation from german name), which edgie pointed out since I had forgotten it.

As for the modified quote "Hell hath no fury like a doll scorned" it actually comes from a play called the "The Mourning Bride" (1697) by William Congreve. The complete quote is "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."

Thanks to:

Edgewalker for beta reading and support

Aondehafka for proofreading and suggestions


	2. Chapter 1,5

This chapter is timed between Ouvertüre OVA and episode 7 of Träumend and describes an event mentioned in the previous chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 1.5**

Plan Nummer 313

_Plan Number 313_

Jun opened the front door after he had heard the doorbell's chime. The bunch had just been eating dinner when it rang and of course Jun was the one that had to check it out. However, there was no one behind the door. Just a small lunchbox, a thermos and a letter. After a quick glance through the yard, he picked them up and brought them back to the kitchen, where everyone waited for him.

"Well, there was no one around, but I found these," Jun briefed the other as he placed the items on the table's corner. Shinku took an immediate interest to the envelope and grabbed it. Swiftly her finger popped open the old European styled signet and she took out the contents.

"Let's see now… 'I am truly sorry, but I must decline your generous offer for dinner due to other pressing matters, but accept this small token of my appreciation –kashira.' " Shinku read the letter aloud. As Shinku finished reading, Jun opened the lunchbox and the smell of warm freshly cooked tamagoyaki greeted the diners. Everyone followed their noses and prepared to grab their share.

"Unyuu, this is so good –na no!" Hina Ichigo happily praised the taste.

"I guess this is okay –desu," Suiseiseki reluctantly agreed with Hina.

Meanwhile Jun was eyeing the thermos with "tea" written on the side. He opened it and an odd smell flowed from within. He looked at the others happily munching on their meal and decided to try it. He poured the brown liquid into a tall glass. _It doesn't look that good, I wonder what tea it is?_

"Umm… anyone else want this 'tea'?" Jun asked.

Everyone seemed to shake their heads, Hina had her strawberry juice while the others were enjoying Nori's Darjeeling tea. _I guess it's just me then. _Jun tried a sip. _Not that bad really_. The cheerful dinner continued with only minimal amount of bickering between Suiseiseki and Hina Ichigo.

- - -

"O ho ho hoo! Everything is going precisely how I, the most cunning of all Rozen maidens, planned -kashira!" certain strategist gloated to her artificial spirit.

"Surely this time I will succeed -kashira! Using that poison which I found from Micchan's medical cabinet, they will soon be too weak to resist my attack!" she continued. Happily going around and around in the bushes near the front door, she observed the bottle, in which the poison had been in.

"Let's see… 'Bowel-B-Gone, works within 15-30 minutes after intake'. So I just have to wait a little bit and they will be begging for their lives –kashira!"

The artificial spirit could not feel anything but worried of its prone-to-fumble master as it listened carefully every single one of her words. But for now, it remained silent and complied quietly with its master's wishes as they laid and waited for the 30 fateful minutes to go by.

- - -

Jun felt awkward. He had been feeling weird soon after the dinner and he couldn't sit on the couch properly. His stomach turned and twisted from inside._ Did I eat something funny? But everyone else ate the same stuff as I did. _Then he remembered the "tea" he had drunk. _Could that be the reason?_ As the document about bears was nearing its end, so was Jun. The nature did not call him. Oh no. The nature **roared** like one hundred angry grizzlies.

Jun slowly stood up and made his way to the toilet nearby. Luckily for him, it was not far away from the living room so he made it in time. He happily closed the door and disappeared into the small safe haven.

- - -

"I wonder if it's safe now –kashira?" Kanaria's doubt began to rise as she still heard some voices in the living room.

"A-anyway! I will now infiltrate the house through the window which doesn't seem to be locked 90 of the times I've checked –kashira!" she pointed to the back of the house.

She trotted under the window followed by her artificial spirit. Quickly looking around her, she made sure that there were no cats or crows around either. She climbed on top of the wall by the window and used her umbrella to pry open the window a bit. She was so concentrated on her plan that she failed to notice the invisible fumes that had been flowing from the opening. As the window opened a little, she could hear something from the inside:

"Oh god, please let me die already!" Jun whined.

"Hear that Pizzicato, my plan is working precisely like I wanted it to work –kashira!" Kanaria triumphantly explained to her spirit.

"Now go in and check the situation!" she commanded.

With a few hesitant tingles, the artificial spirit edged closer to the opening then sped towards it. The instant it hit the air inside the room, it flashed twice, made a few twirls, turned grey and fell. It bounced a few times from the ground like a small rock. There it laid silently and without a glow.

"P-Pizzicato?! A-are you alright –kashira?!" Kanaria worriedly inquired.

In the meantime, Jun had finally ascended to heavens, as he flushed and left the toilet, relieved like a soul which had just been washed away from every sin one could possibly think of. However, something evil had remained.

Kanaria poked her spirit gently with her finger, hoping for a quick revival. Pizzicato did not move. _What could've happened?_ She hadn't seen anything that might've be the cause for such a terrible thing. She decided to find out. Hopping back onto the wall, she pried the window open a bit more. Slowly the window opened, just enough for her to inspect in much more detail. She shoved her head inside. The next few seconds proved to be her downfall. It was the literal _nosedive_ for worse.

As the air intruded her nostrils, it was as if an orchestra had played "In the Hall of the Mountain King" with one hundred French horns, tubas and kettledrums in pure cacophony in her head. Her vision blurred and she felt her strength disappear by every passing second. Finally, after five seconds, her legs did not hold and she fell to the ground, as grey as her artificial spirit, without a single hint of life in her body.

Five minutes later, Jun came back to the toilet. He had remembered his foul deed and decided to do something to suppress any further damage to others. Unfortunately for Kanaria, it was too late.

"I better open the window and let the air change a bit, the next user wouldn't be too 'enthusiastic' to enter" Jun muttered as he was about to open the window.

"Hmm? It's already opened?" he wondered. A quick look outside made it clear who was the guilty one.

"Kanaria?! Why the heck are you in here? Weren't you supposed to be somewhere else since you couldn't dine with us? Wait a minute… Is it your fault that I had to suffer again like this?! Argh, cursed dolls, every day is another day of suffering for me!" the angered human raged on as he slammed the window shut, leaving the fainted doll lying in the grass.

As the sun sunk to the horizon, Kanaria the Grey once again missed her daily dosage of sweetened omelet and her chance to get her hands on the other dolls.

Plan number 313 had failed.

* * *

Author's notes:

Okay, first of all, I need to apologise the huge delay, which was mostly due to my laziness. I decided to write 3 chapters (ok ok, 2 minichaps and one normal chap) to at least try to get some forgiveness from the few readers I've managed to attract. Well, I'm going to try and speed up my writing, at least a little bit. I decided to add some kind of progress bar or summat into my profile page, since some people actually checked it out and found nothing (I suck at self introductions, so meh). Also, I fixed a lot of typos from first chapter and 3 fact errors, like Suigintou not using Megu's power at all and Jun having two rings. Sigh, such silly mistakes really, thanks goes to Aondehafka and I added his nick to the list. I should've posted it earlier but I wanted to do it at the same time with the other chapters but it just dragged on so…a bit late I'd say.

About this chapter:

This was pretty much one random idea I came up way back when I was thinking about the actual fic. I chuckled at the idea a bit, but I wasn't really sure whether I should write it or not since the topic was… a bit lower in perspective than the usual. After I got a green light from the beta reader, I decided that what the heck, let's do it.

Name of the chapter comes from a popular game series, which fits into this theme, also, the number had to be over 199 (I took the "challenges" she mentioned as previous missions plus the one she just failed, which could ofc be wrong) and under 457. 313 was a perfect fit.

Oh, and if you do not know the classic piece "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (composed by Edvard Grieg), check it out. It's quite amusing really.

Thanks to:

Edgewalker for beta reading and support

Yorumi for translation help


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Quälende Gedanken

_Troubled Minds_

Shinku felt awkward standing in front of a large full-body mirror. Eyeing herself from the mirror tilting her head from side to side. This was the second time she wore this dress. It never ceased to amaze her how Mitsu had found something like this for her.

Her shirt was white with frills going down on her chest and on her waist, puffy shoulders, slightly too long sleeves with a wide opening for hands and two black lines decorating the ends of the sleeves. Collar resembled something out of a sailor school uniform with some frills and two black lines, decorated with a light blue bow tie showing under the sleeve. Her light blue dress was a short, down to her thighs and open, revealing white puffy undergarments, which ended at her knees, tied up with two white bows. Long white and black striped socks came down from knees ending up in small black doll shoes. She was topped with a light blue bow with two black stripes lining the ribbon's ends.

The feeling of shyness crept on her cheeks. She didn't want to go back to Sakurada household wearing this. _It was embarrassing to be seen like this._ _Honestly, what would Jun say if he saw this?_ _He would laugh until he died of cramps._ Suiseiseki was floating behind Shinku, waiting impatiently for her to open the N-field's door to Sakurada's. They were currently floating over an empty space, with several other exits to other N-fields and places in the real world. Usually depicted with a door, sometimes with a large mirror like this one and rarely with other "openings" such as windows and ponds.

Suiseiseki had her "Micchan-version" on as well. Her long red pleated dress went down to her knees, and was continued with two long white boots with small bows on it. Her red dress was lined with black lines of frills and two black bows. Her shoulders were as puffy as Shinku's, with white sleeves ending up in three layers of frills. Yet another lining of frills decorated her white collar and she had a beret, matching with her pleated dress. Her hair was tied from behind with two black bows as well.

Unlike Shinku, Suiseiseki was eager to show her new dress to Jun. According to her fantasies, _Jun would fall for her in the first split second he sees her. She would be sitting on a throne while Jun waved a large palm leaf to keep her cool in the burning heat and…_

"Shinku! Start moving already -desu! I need to hurry back -desu!" Suiseiseki hurried Shinku with a small prod on her back.

"Do-don't you hurry a lady when she needs to prepare herself!" Shinku defended herself.

"A lady -desu? You look like a child in those clothes -desu! Just like that mini-Ichigo! Compared to elegant and delicate me you look so immature and unsophisticated -desu!" Suiseiseki haughtily explained.

"How rude! Clothes do not make a lady! What's inside the clothes is what makes lady a lady!" Shinku snapped with a slight red tone on her face from anger. She finally lift her hand and placed it against the mirror's surface. Slowly the surface begun to glow brightly, indicating that it was ready to be entered.

The dolls had had to visit Kanaria's strategic base, Mitsu Kusabue's home, for some new clothing. Their previous dresses were still quite dirty from yesterday's dough and Jun's blood. Additionally, the smell was horrible enough to make the birds fall to the ground as they passed Sakurada's house. That's why Nori had taken the dresses to a special cleaner and the dolls were ordered to visit Micchan and loan a new set of clothes for a day or two. Having escaped from Micchan alive, they were now making their way back home.

"No-now that we're here, m-maybe we should first look around here before we go ba-" Shinku hesitated again and was interrupted by Suiseiseki who pushed her through the glowing mirror.

Upon hearing that Jun's visit had been fruitless, they had decided to begin searching for the lost Roza mysticas. First from their own N-fields and later Souseiseki's and Hina Ichigo's empty N-fields since a Roza mystica should return to it's original owner's N-field if left alone. After that, they would slowly search the closest N-fields and widen the searches every day. They really didn't have any clues on where the mysticas could be if the first choices failed and just searching the closest N-fields to Rose Garden was deemed to be the best idea.

Shinku and Suiseiseki appeared into a familiar closet. Dozens of boxes, hanging coats, tied up rugs, sacks of old clothing were laying around left and right, forming a path forward to where the exit was. Shinku took a few steps and just stood there, pondering whether she should really continue or turn back. Suiseiseki rushed past Shinku with a determined look on her face. Nothing could stop her now, she had some wooing to do.

Jun was upstairs studying algebra when the dolls arrived to the house. Rubbing his cheek, which seemed to have swelled for a reason or another, he tried to concentrate but the pain made it hard. Only if the dolls hadn't used their full power on him, this might've never happened. Of course he might be considered to be partially in fault for his own pain, but it was well worth it. To be able to give back some of the verbal abuse back was pretty satisfying in the end.

Suiseiseki stopped right behind Jun's room's door which was slightly open. Clenching her fist in front of her face she concentrated. The next few actions would be crucial for her plan.

"Right, just do like baroness otter did in the episode two weeks ago -desu! The otter knows the best -desu!" she pumped up her fighting spirit.

Jun's studying was interrupted by a sudden chill which ran along his spine. He turned to look at the door and there she was. Suiseiseki in her new attire, trying to give out her best pose by leaning to the door's frame with left leg slightly bent revealing her jointed knee a bit, right hand touching her beret and left hand resting on her hip.

Jun stared blankly at Suiseiseki and his eyebrow twitched a bit. _What the heck is she planning again?!_ Usually, he would've laughed until he couldn't stay in any upward position, but he had been traumatised by yesterday's events. With his mouth twisted in a clear attempt to suppress laughter he simply replied:

"T-that's a cute outfit," and turned back to his desk, sweating profoundly.

It was now Suiseiseki's turn to stare at Jun's back. How could've her cunning plan fail yet again? It worked so well for baroness otter. _Wait? Was Jun implying that she was less attractive than that bloody otter?! _Breaking the pose her anger kept rising as she closed in on Jun's left leg.

Jun kept sweating as he heard the steps come closer by every second. He figured that if he played it out like nothing had happened, he would survive to see tomorrow. Well at least the dinner. He began turning his chair to face Suiseiseki again but he was cut off guard by a shoe that prevented him from turning the chair. The result was that Jun lost his balance and began falling with the chair on his side.

Suiseiseki nimbly dodged the falling human and watched him collapse from the chair, hitting his jaw to the floor and banging his legs as the chair tipped over. Suiseiseki sneered as she walked over Jun, pressing hard on each step, proceeding back to the door.

"That's what you get for saying that I'm less attractive than an otter -desu!" she said over her shoulder and slammed the door shut.

"Why me?" Jun whined from between the chair and the floor.

Well, at least he survived Suiseiseki. Now Shinku still remains. The thought of another murderous doll made him shiver in horror. Rubbing his chin he got up from the floor and decided to go to the lion's cave. Taking a deep breath he stepped outside from his room and made his way downstairs, where Nori was watching the news and Suiseiseki was pouting next to her.

Jun looked around but couldn't see the proud doll anywhere. As if looking for his own demise he turned to Suiseiseki.

"Umm… do you know where Shinku is? Didn't you two come back together?"

Suiseiseki glared coldly at Jun and turned her head away letting out an audible "Hmph!" at the same time. However, she did point towards the large closet with her right hand thumb over her shoulder. Following the direction Jun noticed something peeking from behind the sliding door to the closet. The shadow quickly retreated back inside before Jun managed to catch a better glimpse of it.

"Hmm? Shinku, is that you…?" scratching his head, he went to the door and knocked it. No reply.

"Shinku, are you there?" Jun repeated and prepared to slide open the closet door.

"Don't you dare open that door Jun" Shinku warned him behind the door.

"But what's taking you so long?" he replied in frustration.

"A lady needs her time to prepare herself!" she again relied on the same excuse as earlier with Suiseiseki.

"Okay okay, I understand, take your time _milady_" Jun snorted kiddingly and turned his back to the door.

"What is the matter with me?" Shinku thought. She stood sternly behind the door and looked down at her hands. _Was she always this shy?_ No, definitely not. This isn't like her.

The few seconds that went by felt like small slices of eternity but she couldn't lose to Suiseiseki here and now. She shook her head and clenched her fists_. If that useless servant as much as looks at her funnily, she'd whip some manners straight into his spine!_

Shinku pulled the door aside slightly which encouraged the door to creak enough to get Jun's attention towards it. Jun braced himself, since he still needed to keep a straight face if he wanted to stay alive. He couldn't even imagine what could be the worst that could happen if calling Suiseiseki "cute" means an almost broken jaw. With a large gulp he turned back to look and the door and the doll standing in the opening. The instant his brains realized the sight he was looking, his mouth twisted into form which could be described as partly a smile and the rest being lip biting to the point of bleeding. He already knew Shinku was actually quite cute under that proud exterior but this was just too much. He felt like laughing yet for some reason he wanted to hug her hard and rub his cheek on hers. She even had a cute blue bow on her head, just to top it off. Then the dreaded question came:

"H-how does it look Jun?" Shinku asked blushing heavily turning her head as if she was checking her dress.

_Right Jun. This is it. The moment you've been dreading. Think quick, think quick!_ Jun's thoughts ran inside of his head.

"W-well…it's quite…different" he hesitated while keeping his smirking at minimum.

"Different?" Shinku seemed to expect an explanation.

"Err… I mean, it fits you," he wiped some sweat from his forehead into his sleeve.

"F-fits me? Because it's different? What is that supposed to mean?" Shinku was now starting to sound worried.

Jun literally froze on Shinku's last question. This was most definitely not going the right way. He pleaded his brains to work a decent reply but it failed him. Luckily he had prepared a cunning and devious plan for a situation like this.

"Jun?"

Shinku looked directly in his eyes, trying to get an answer out of him. Jun suddenly twitched and turned. After a split second, he was gone.

"H-he ran?!" shocked Shinku gawked.

Shinku's amazement lasted only a few seconds and she had regained her posture. Now that Jun had seen her in this overly cute dress, the pressure was off of her. Taking interest in the soap opera Nori and Suiseiseki were watching, she decided to join them on the couch. She took her place next to Suiseiseki on the right end of the couch.

"What did he mean by being different?" Shinku thought out loud, as if asking from Suiseiseki.

"I'm sure it was nothing to worry about. You look so cute that I could just hug you really tightly!" Nori replied suddenly, looking at Shinku over Suiseiseki's head.

"Control yourself Nori, I do not wish to receive any more physical affection after that visit. Micchan can be quite a handful" she sighed.

"Suiseiseki looks very cute in that dress too, like a small model! But why are you pouting like that?" Nori worried.

"Hmph! He called me uglier than an otter -desu! I'm not talking to him anymore -desu!" Suiseiseki explained with her nose held high.

"Oh really? Is that so?" Suiseiseki's words surprised Nori.

"Maybe he does need some re-education again" Shinku pondered. This made Suiseiseki nod her head furiously in agreement.

"You're absolutely right! I'll help -desu!"

"Honestly, what a rude servant he is. I have been here for a long time now and he still hasn't learned how to treat a lady."

"So true -desu!"

The two dolls nodded together as they signed yet another pact which surely didn't include the use of silk gloves and pleasant words to Jun. Nori sighed as she lowered her head.

"Jun… why is it so hard for you to be nice to them?"

Few blocks away the misunderstood boy was still running down the street, cursing his life and the two dolls that were so deeply involved in it.

- - -

Shinku stepped out from a bright rectangle of light onto a red carpet over parquet, making a small knock. As the light dimmed down, one could now recognise the rectangle as a large mirror, lined with golden roses and vines. To her left was several crimson curtain decorated windows which displayed the view to the front yard of the mansion. Bright rays of light permeated the darkness of the chamber showing the other end of the long room and a small table which Shinku could easily recognise from her dreams. It was the table she always drank her tea whenever she was sleeping. The table along with the large chair and most of the room was created to match that memory, the dream she often saw.

The weather however was always cloudy and somewhat dark in her dreams but in her field she preferred the clear sky with a decent amount of sunlight. Outside the white manor was large fields of red roses and a gentle wind was carrying dozens of petals around which never seemed to touch the ground nor fly too high and disappear. Between the fields was a road, which used to lead the horse carriages to the front of the manor. The road went around a roman-style fountain and seemed to go forever disappearing only after one's eyes couldn't see any further.

Behind the mansion was a lush forest of birch trees mixed with firs. It was sparse enough to let the light shine on the ground giving birth to several types of small forest flowers and underbrush like heather and tall grass. However not a single bird could be seen flying above the trees or any other living beings on the ground. It was quiet enough and Shinku had always enjoyed the silence which let her enjoy the tea or just her thoughts. This had been becoming harder by every passing day since Hina Ichigo and Suiseiseki moved into Sakurada's household.

After a quick glance through the window she walked out from the room, into a corridor with a few other doors on the same side. Turning to her right she passed several paintings as well as the two doors before arriving to the end of the corridor with a large oak door. She tipped her head to the figures of authority that hanged from the walls as she opened the door with a handle placed conveniently low enough for her to open it using her cane. She now appeared to a large ballroom from the second floor. With two ascending stairs from both sides, merging together in the middle and descending to the first floor. Obviously it was built so that the ladies of the manor could show off to the crowd as they descended the stairs to meet the guests. However there was no one to show off to, there never had been guests in Shinku's N-field. She preferred to settle matters elsewhere without letting anyone see the field she had built with her heart.

Shinku made her way down the stairs and as she arrived to the middle point of the room she looked around and finally closed her eyes. She held her hand up over her head and silently boomed a simple command which made several round circles appear on the parquet. She swayed her hand above the circles which turned into images. They portrayed different places within her N-field switching to different places every time Shinku waved her hand above them.

Five minutes passed quickly and the fact Shinku couldn't locate the mysticas confirmed her feelings. As soon as she had entered, she noticed that there were no foreign entities or objects in her N-field. Sighing she decided that she had seen enough and it would be a waste of time to stay here any longer.

Trotting slowly back to the room where she entered from, she took her time to smell the air and run her fingers along the walls as she went by. She could've left through the mirrors in the ballroom but she preferred to use that one exact room and its mirror. It had been a while since she last came here and she wanted to enjoy it, at least for a few more minutes before disappearing again into the glowing mirror.

- - -

Sparkling fresh water rained over a small sprout, making it glow with faint green and white light. Within few seconds the sapling grew a few inches higher creating a few new leaves as it rose. The gardener, to whom the ornate watering can belong to, was smiling like a gentle mother as she watched it reach higher than the surrounding grass. Standing straight, Suiseiseki span around within the green scene, stealing a glance of her surroundings. This was just one of her many favourite spots within her field; surrounded by high trees was a small pond not larger than Jun's room. The pond was surrounded by white, red and yellow flowers. Trees' roots were running along the forest floor and a mushroom or two could be seen growing near them. High bushes had grown here and there, seeking support from the trees and from each other with their vines.

This lush place was the place where Suiseiseki often liked to be alone, with only the butterflies and other small pretty insects, which she deemed as "not annoying" as her company. Souseiseki had visited this place once, maybe twice, but usually Suiseiseki brought her along the other places of her garden. Now Suiseiseki really wanted to show her this place since it had changed so much from the first time she had visited this forest pond. Unfortunately she hadn't found her sister's mystica from either her own nor from Souseiseki's field, so she wasn't able to fulfil this small wish of hers.

Suiseiseki sighed as she made the watering can disappear in a bright flash and patted the dirt off of her red pleated dress. Closing her heterochromatic eyes she uttered few short incantations and the pond started to shine bright white. Suiseiseki took one last glimpse behind her and reluctantly jumped into the pond, disappearing without a splash. She headed home.

- - -

The sound of delicate violin echoed in the vast concert hall, which could fit several hundreds of spectators. The rows of seats were covered with red velvet, sticking out from the otherwise wooden interiors. The balconies would have been reserved for dozens of nobles, who would come from great distances to listen to her music, but no one knew about this particular hall.

On the stage stood the source of the clear music: a small doll clad in yellow, handling an adorable violin precisely and accurately. This particular tune was from Pachelbel's Canon. The tune sounded lonely and sad with only one instrument playing inside this huge empty hall. The violin yearned to be played to the one person she wanted to meet the most, her Father. This whole hall stood only for the sake of performing to him, at least that was her opinion about it. Every single detail, the golden rose engravings, the red velvet, the dark green curtains were made in his honour.

Suddenly Kanaria was interrupted by her artificial spirit, which floated around her head, tinkling loudly. Kanaria opened her emerald eyes and deciphered the silent words of the yellow ball of light. She nodded and lowered her violin, bowed to the audience that did not exist and walked of the stage, without a single person applauding to her wonderful music.

One day she would play her violin to Father… one day.

- - -

Shinku appeared from the stuffed closet, only to notice that Suiseiseki had been waiting for her already. Suiseiseki had her head downcast, staring sadly at the floor. It didn't take a Kanaria to guess the answer whether she had found the mysticas or not.

"I see…" Shinku silently whispered.

Suiseiseki slowly walked back to the living room, knowing that Nori was there, ready to comfort her. She noticed that now especially she could use some kindness. Normally she'd be seeking it from her sister or vent her frustration on Jun, but currently neither were available. Jun was still out, having been away for almost 2 hours now. Thus Suiseiseki went for the next best thing.

"Is Jun here?" Shinku questioned.

"No…he's still out," Suiseiseki replied over her shoulder.

"Honestly, first you can't get him to leave the house and now he doesn't come back in hours? What a troublesome servant" Shinku commented as she shook her head. Shinku looked at Suiseiseki's back as she made her way to the living room.

"Suiseiseki."

Suiseiseki came to a halt. She waited for Shinku to continue, without turning to face her.

"We'll find them. Maybe not today but maybe tomorrow or the day after that," Shinku assured her.

Suiseiseki nodded and gave a little smile but hid it from Shinku. Suiseiseki's head rose a bit as she continued towards the couch where Nori already sat. She sat beside Nori and gently grabbed Nori's sleeve as they watched the ever so boring quiz show.

After reassuring Suiseiseki that they would surely find the mysticas, Shinku had decided. She'd visit one more place for today where the mysticas might be. **Her** N-field. She had hoped that Jun had already returned, since she expected to run into some trouble. Surely **she** would notice and take action, but Shinku's own words she had said to comfort Suiseiseki, also gave herself more determination to risk it.

Shinku turned back to face the mirror from where she just came. She placed her finger on the reflecting surface but nothing happened. 

"She has locked her field… Jun, I will have to borrow a hint of your energy…" Shinku murmured to herself. This time the mirror slowly started to shine. The light fluttered as if it would've disappeared at any given moment.

"There we go."

She looked down at her dress quickly and hesitated a bit. Maybe there was someone else she didn't want to show her overly cute self to. She sighed as she prepared herself to enter Suigintou's N-field.

- - -

A dark blue heel hit the wall behind it, making a small clopping sound. The high heeled boot was nervously swinging up and down, hitting the wall, as the owner sat on the windowsill. Arms crossed on her chest, Suigintou had been irritated since Jun's little visit. However, irritation was not the only emotion she was feeling.

Something had happened to her. Something she did not imagine would ever happen. She touched her waist with her right hand, pushing her finger slightly into the fabric. For a moment she was completely petrified. She quickly pulled her hand back, as if she was worried that something would break, and exhaled again. Something had definitely happened.

Staring forward with her magenta eyes Suigintou had roused Megu's curiosity. This was one of those rare moments when Suigintou showed a deeper feeling other than indifference right in front of her. Megu ran her eyes slowly along Suigintou's boot then switching to her eyes, measuring her frustration carefully. She noticed that Suigintou was looking right back at her with an annoyed look in her eyes.

"What?" Suigintou snapped.

"Is there something bothering you?" Megu asked and smiled, knowing the answer already.

"Hmph! It's none of your business" Suigintou tightly replied.

"If it's about that boy who visited me… that makes it my business as well, doesn't it?" Megu sweetly confronted the doll. Suigintou turned her head away and Megu interpreted this as a silent agreement.

"That boy said quite idealistic words, didn't he? Too bad that in real world they are just a bunch of cute words…" she continued as Suigintou remained silent.

_Cute words?_ Suigintou frowned. Those "cute words" had been bothering her for a day now. Whether they were true or not, what Shinku did was unforgivable. _How could she play with her like that?!_ Suigintou suddenly startled upon the realisation that she had been thinking about those times again. It still ground her, the words, the pity.

_Enough of this!_ Suigintou thought as she shook off the feelings again and turned back to the patient. She hadn't been able to gain more mysticas to help her "broken" medium_. Why did she care about that anyway? A similar position? Absolutely not! At least not anymore._ _She had been acknowledged by Father while Megu was… _Suigintou found herself unable to finish the sentence. Instead she looked sharply at Megu and opened her mouth:

"You want me to use your energy, right?"

Megu looked slightly happy and nodded quickly. Like Suigintou expected her to do. _This foolish girl, when would she get through to her?_

"Then get better. I have no use for a medium if she's weak even before I draw energy out of her," Suigintou coldly explained.

"But you already know…I can't get better…my heart…" as Megu was replying, it suddenly dawned to her.

"Suigintou, you said you would actually use my energy if you could?"

"Uh, I didn't say that! I just said that IF you really want me to use…" Suigintou tried to defend herself, but Megu was too excited to properly notice it.

"And did you worry about me?"

Megu was overjoyed by the fact she had perceived. However she failed to realize that usually she hated to worry others but when it came from her angel, things were different. Suigintou's cheeks gained a slight tint of pink and she tried to hide any signs of concern.

"F-foolish human! I merely-" her sentence was cut short, when she felt something out of ordinary.

Someone had just entered her N-field. _Who could dare to step inside her domain?_ Suigintou stood up, with her magenta eyes full of anger she leaped out from the window. Her wings swished against the wind as she took off quickly, disappearing from Megu's sight.

This took Megu by surprise at first but quickly made her giggle a bit_. How cute that her angel actually blushed in front of her._ After a minute she remembered Suigintou's words again. Taking a small peek to her left, she saw her grey meal. Maybe she could eat a little bit more. Just a little bit.

- - -

Cold breeze hit Shinku's face as she flew between the old and abandoned 19th century buildings, peering through them as she went past. It seems that the snowing, which had been common in this N-field, had stopped, making it easier for Shinku to fly and not to forget the added visibility a clear sky brought. It was still chilling but It didn't bother Shinku, who stopped on top of an old pharmacy to look around. Dozens of buildings surrounded her, with silent roads which no one had ever walked on. Darkness was overwhelming but it didn't seem to limit her vision at all as she searched anything out of ordinary from the distance. Slowly her gaze rose to look at the mirrored town above her. It was as silent and eerie as the one she had been skimming through.

"Suigintou… I wonder when you'll let this town feel a touch of warmth…?" Shinku sighed silently.

Her eyes caught a glimpse of an old church, or rather the ruins of one. This seemed to be the place which she visited when she was going to settle things with Suigintou. Back then Suigintou was actually trapping Jun as she was wrestling with the broken dolls. Come to think of it, there's not a single one lying around anymore. _Looks like she has changed a little bit after Megu became her medium._ Shinku smiled at the thought. _She has so much hatred in her, maybe she has finally let some of the bitterness disappear?_

Shinku descended on to the stone pavement and continued by foot. A chill ran through her spine. Suddenly, a torrent of black razor sharp feathers swished right above her head, hitting and penetrating the stones in front of her, splitting them into smaller pieces. Shinku quickly span around and indeed, right where Shinku had just been, on top of the broken roof of an old pharmacist was the dark angel herself.

"My my! Who do we have here? A fool of a little sister is it? And what stupid kid's clothes you're wearing today, _Reiner Saphir_? Konpeki!" Suigintou almost guffawed as she saw Shinku in her new dress.

"Ko-konpeki?!" Shinku gawked in shock, this was the reason why she didn't want to be seen by this particular person.

"Well well, aren't I quite rude to the guest…or should I say pest?" Suigintou's eyes quickly narrowed as she focused on the intruder.

"You know very well that I didn't come here to meet you Suigintou!" Shinku managed to collect her composure.

"So, a pest it is, eh?" Suigintou spread her black wings wide apart with sadistic glee in her smile.

"Nor did I come here to fight you," Shinku quickly continued.

"Then just WHAT are you doing in my N-field?!" Suigintou snapped in anger.

"I'm looking for something," Shinku gave a puzzling reply sternly and stared right into Suigintou's eyes.

"Looking for something? From here? Are you stupid or something?" Suigintou smirked at Shinku.

"However, I don't think I'll find what I'm looking for… at least not from here," Shinku turned her body sideways towards Suigintou, who seemed to be somewhat frustrated.

"Looks like you are quite agitated Suigintou, you're spouting vulgarities even more often than you usually do," Shinku continued.

Suigintou's body twitched slightly. Grinding her teeth at Shinku, she launched a feather straight towards Shinku, who effortlessly blocked it with her cane which she materialised in a split second from the rose petals she conjured from her small palms.

"My, by the looks of it I hit the head of the nail," Shinku amusedly commented.

"I should just rip you into pieces and grab your Roza mystica while I'm at it, Shinku!" Suigintou hissed.

"I think you've heard about it already, Suigintou? That it's not necessary anymore…" Shinku smiled heartily at Suigintou. Suigintou froze. That was the second thing that had bothered her all day. She sneered, trying to show Shinku that she didn't care.

"What's with that painful looking smile Suigintou. You can't hide your uncertainty with such fake grin," Shinku pushed on.

_What was she all the sudden? Some sort of psychic, being able to read her that easily? Damn her!_

Few of the black feathers slowly floated in her hand and formed a long sheathlike object. It flashed purple and soon Suigintou was holding up a vicious sword in her hand. Swinging it swiftly around, she then pointed it at Shinku.

"I'm still not going to go play the Alice game, Suigintou, but I will defend myself. I have a duty which I must fulfil," Shinku explained sternly, without a flinch in her voice.

"A duty? A duty to become junk perhaps?" Suigintou gloated.

"Hardly. A duty given to me by Father."

Shinku said the magic word, Father. This simple show of favouring towards Shinku made Suigintou's blood boil. Gawking in anger, the dark figure leaned forwards, preparing for an attack. Shinku prepared her cane and lifted it towards Suigintou, ready to take her on if she were to attack.

"Shiiinkuuu!" Suigintou shrieked as she started to dive towards Shinku.

The black winged doll's blade was met just before it would've made a larger slash on the white blouse and driven to the side, making Suigintou miss and almost stumble to the stony pavement. She regained her balance and landed on her feet, sliding back on the stones like it was ice. Expecting a quick retaliation, Suigintou moved her wing in front of her to protect herself. However, Shinku had just stood there with no intention to retaliate. Shinku could see the surprise in her opponent's face.

"I told you, I have no intention to fight seriously."

"Are you looking down on me, Shinku?!" Suigintou hissed.

"That is hardly so. Don't make me repeat…" Shinku suddenly stopped her sentence.

Shinku had thought of something. She could fight her a bit, even though Suigintou had the upper hand. It was her N-field and Jun wasn't here, making power draining a lot more inefficient. Plus there was the small chance that Suigintou still had the mystica. However, Shinku felt confident and this way she could make sure whether Suigintou had the mystica or not.

"I guess I can entertain you for a while, Suigintou!" Shinku defiantly said with a small smirk on her lips.

"Don't take me lightly Shinku… one mistake and you're junk!"

"Taking you lightly? Maybe… If you're really that serious, you should show it to me. So far you've not even managed to make me change my posture, Suigintou," Shinku taunted her.

Suigintou ground her teeth in anger and spread her wings wide open. She let out a huge blast only a few feet away from Shinku, who struggled to maintain her shield of rose petals. The stones were lifted and shattered from the road and the buildings shook and crumbled under the pressure. Even with the protection Shinku had she was pushed back along the road.

As the pressure wave finally subsided, neither of the dolls could stay on their feet as the buildings started to collapse, partly on to the road. With a small hop they both rose above the street and the buildings, looking carefully at each other. Suigintou smiled wickedly over her small victory.

"Oh my! Looks like your… posture… suffered a little!" Suigintou grinned.

"You had to go that far just to make me move? Surely you can do better than that," Shinku began to taunt her again.

Suigintou's grin changed into an expression of pure spite. She unleashed her black feathers towards Shinku, creating a hard wind to disturb Shinku's concentration. Shinku prepared herself by spreading her petals around herself and waited for Suigintou's next move. She didn't have to wait for long. Suigintou charged forward, holding her sword on her side. Shinku held her cane with both hands towards the oncoming opponent, glaring at her.

Suigintou placed her other hand on the sword as well, preparing to thrust as she entered the mix of her own feathers and Shinku's petals.

"SHIIINKUUU!" she screamed disappearing just a mere second before pushing the sword forward, leaving only feathers in front of Shinku.

"Wha-?!" Shinku startled for a split second, then she saw something with the corner of her eye.

Turning right quickly, swinging her cane at the same time she managed to parry Suigintou's sword. Trying to push it back with all her might, she suddenly lost her balance as the pressure disappeared along with the whole blade and the doll that held it. Shinku's face was hit by the multitude of feathers that were left behind. Covering her face she quickly span around. _Left? Right?_ She stood there in the air. A sudden disturbance in the rose petals she had spread around alarmed her.

"Above!" She shouted out as she leaned back, managing to partially parry her opponents foot that tried to leave its mark on her face, but the impact threw her back towards the stony pavement.

The dark angel dived after the white and blue opponent, launching piercing feathers as she lunged forward. Shinku swung her cane, blocking one feather after another while trying to create a pillow for safer landing with her other hand. She knew that it wouldn't help much at this point but even a small bit might count. Her main problem laid ahead, if Suigintou were to crush into her after she had hit the ground, it would be the end of her. She remembered the earlier petals she had spread around and decided to use them.

"You seem to concentrate a bit too much what's in front of you!" warned the falling maiden as she brought her hand which was creating the pillow from behind her.

"What?!" shrieked the black figure.

Shinku pushed her hand forward, then clenched her open hand into a fist, with a small glow of red surrounding her fist. This caused the petals above them to turn into sharp needles. Then she moved her hand as if she was pulling something that she had just encased within her fingers. The red needles began to dart towards Suigintou. She quickly covered herself with her wings, but the needles pushed Suigintou into a nosedive as well while keeping her contained within her wings.

After a split second Shinku smashed into the pavement. Even with the small barrier, the impact was fierce. She screamed from the pain as the stones broke under her back and sent pebbles and dust flying. A short moment later, Suigintou also crashed into the stones with an audible yelp. Rubble flew high and far giving off small clouds of dust.

Both dolls were lying on the road, gathering back their strength and breathing heavily. Shinku turned to her side to watch as Suigintou rose on her knees with the help of her hands.

"Why…why did you… warn me?" Suigintou hissed under her silvery hair that covered her face from Shinku's vision.

"I told…you.. I will not… fight to kill," Shinku managed to whisper as she was still catching her breath as well.

After both of the dolls managed to get back on their feet, they glanced at each other. Both had small rips on their dresses with several spots of dirt covering the places that were ravaged the worst by the dust and rubble. Shinku had had enough for now. Her question had been answered.

"It seems that we're still quite even, Suigintou."

"Hmph! It's foolish to even compare our powers, you have always been a second grade doll compared to me in strength!" Suigintou gloated.

"It looks like I won't find it from here either…" Shinku said to herself, not minding what Suigintou had just said.

"Are you ignoring me?! And what rubbish are you suddenly spouting?" Suigintou demanded an answer.

"Suigintou," Shinku sternly begun.

"Even if you know that there are other ways to become Alice, you still insist on playing the Alice Game?" Shinku's eyes thinned.

"Of course!" Suigintou replied as it was the simplest question in the world.

"Why?" Shinku queried.

"Do YOU know what the other ways are?!" Suigintou blurted.

"No. But for me that's good enough reason not to fight. I will just have to find out what the other ways are," Shinku explained.

Suigintou seemed rather angry, which was no wonder after the short and fierce battle, but having blown off most of her steam she was actually quite calm inside. Giving a quick thought over Shinku's words, she shrugged them off.

"How long do you think that will take?! I want to see Father NOW! Alice Game is the fastest and the only way I know how to meet him," Suigintou gave her opinion.

"Is that really the only reason you wish to gain the mysticas?" Shinku suddenly confronted her.

"W-what?!" gasped the opponent.

"Aren't you forgetting that I had your mystica for a short while?" Shinku pushed on.

"Q-quiet you fool! Megu has nothing to do with this!" Suigintou tried to cover what seemed to have been revealed to Shinku during that short time she was talking about. Shinku's face got a more serious expression as she continued:

"Do you really trust Barasuishou's words that much? Don't you forget that she and Enju manipulated us for their own purposes?"

"I saw Megu feel better when I used some of the mystica's power on her!" Suigintou protested.

"That might've been just a reversal of power transfer, which only helps for a while. Would you really know what it was? You haven't had a medium before, have you?" she hit the end of the nail.

"That's none of your business!" Suigintou was quick to shout her opinion. Shinku lowered her head and turned away from Suigintou. She slowly started to walk away, clearly disappointed.

"Where do you think you're going, Shinku?" vexed Suigintou asked. Shinku stopped. With sad eyes she looked over her shoulder at Suigintou.

"Suigintou."

"Wh-what?!"

"Even if we ignore Megu's part in this, do you think that Father would like to meet you after you've slaughtered your sisters to meet him, all the while knowing that there are other ways to achieve this?"

Clearly shaken, Suigintou did not say a word of reply. Shinku did not stay and wait for her to answer and flew away, hurrying back to the entrance she had used earlier. This was the perfect moment for her to retreat without further hassle. While Shinku had disappeared, Suigintou was still standing there, expressionless, frozen.

"That's not fair…" she whispered quietly.

"That's not fair, Shinku!" she repeated but this time roaring and clenching her fists by her sides.

As if she needed more things to bother her. _Would Father really hate someone who became Alice through the Alice Game? It was he who made the rules, wasn't he?! But…Father…he loves his creations, doesn't he?_ Suigintou frowned in annoyance. For now she decided return back to Megu. Her song always seemed to soothe her troubled mind.

With a swift leap Suigintou arose and flew away, deep in her thoughts. If she had paid attention, she might've noticed a pair of keen eyes, that had been enjoying the show for quite a while now. As the dark figure disappeared from her N-field, the eyes closed and merged with the surrounding darkness and once again silence fell upon the wrecked ghost town.

- - -

Jun removed his shoes silently, hoping that no one noticed him entering the house. The ring's heat and glow had driven him back from the lengthy "walk" he had been on. From the looks of it, Shinku had used some of his power, not that much, but enough to alarm him. However, he wasn't too keen on seeing her or Suiseiseki right now.

The stairs are right there, if he could just sneak up… 

"Jun," a voice called to him.

Jun froze into an awkward position, like a thief caught red-handed. Slowly he turned his head towards the source which came from the direction of the old closet, behind the staircase. Indeed, there she was, the doll he had earlier ran away from. Quickly he observed the current status of her dress. Small rips and dirt all over the white blouse and blue skirt.

"What happened to you?" Jun sounded worried.

"I met an old acquaintance," she replied.

"I will need you to clean and repair this dress for me," Shinku continued her words with a familiar command.

"But of course, 'Jun, do this, Jun do that'…wait? You're not mad at me anymore?" Jun noticed that Shinku wasn't spanking his tender parts.

"Why should I?" was the answer, as casual as ever.

Jun's mental self did the proverbial "high-five".

"Ah, uhm, for no special reason really…" Jun quickly covered himself. A door opened to Jun's right and Nori popped her head from the kitchen. With a big smile she greeted the two:

"Welcome back Jun, Shinku! I just made a few snacks, so come in to the living room and eat them with us."

The word "us" gave Jun the Goosebumps. With a slightly frightened voice he asked:

"Eh… Nori, is Suiseiseki still angry?"

Just as he had finished, he noticed the devil herself next to Nori's feet. His pupils shrunk in terror as he heard the next words:

"Shinku, you're back -desu! I think it's time to begin the re-education we talked about –desu!" which Suiseiseki uttered with a hint of sadistic glee in her voice.

"What am I going to do with you, Suiseiseki," Shinku sighed.

"What do you mean –desu?" slightly confused Suiseiseki asked.

"Do you really want to hurt him?" Shinku interrogated her.

"E-eh…?" Suiseiseki went silent and backed away a step or two.

"Why not just make him brush your hair and forgive him?" Shinku suggested.

"W-what?! How can I let that rude mini-human touch my hair –desu?!" Suiseiseki quickly protested.

Suiseiseki flushed a bit as she turned her head away from the two. Jun seemed slightly surprised as well. _Didn't Shinku say something about hair being special to a lady?_ Then again, instead of "re-education" he very much preferred some "community service" instead, then again, _brushing her hair doesn't seem so bad, does it?_ Nori warmed up to the suggestion as well:

"That's a good idea Shinku! Come on Suiseiseki, please make up with Jun, maybe I'll get something special from the fridge as well!" she cheerfully supported Shinku's idea.

Suiseiseki quickly ran to the living room and sat on a couch and seemed to sulk, keeping her head down. Jun looked worriedly through the door at her. Was she still mad? Suddenly her head rose and stared right at him. With a slight tint of pink on her cheeks and frowning eyes she yelled:

"What is taking you so long you pathetic mini-human –desu! Come and brush my hair –desu!"

"I'll bring the hairbrush," Nori happily tapped Jun's shoulder and disappeared into her room. Sighing, Jun surrendered and with a posture of a sloth he slumped towards the waiting doll.

"Fix this, brush that… geeze…" he whined quietly, but secretly he was quite happy about the outcome.

"Honestly… everyone's so dishonest to their feelings… but I guess it's bearable once in a while," Shinku bemoaned. Now standing alone she quickly glanced around and dusted her dress. Frowning deeply she felt slightly provoked.

"I let him see me in this messy dress…"

She suddenly startled and blushed as she realized what she had said.

"It looks like I have a hint of dishonesty as well."

- - -

"I see… so she has been tainted…?" a soft, sparkling voice inquired.

"Tainted, milady?" the voice of a refined gentleman asked. The nails of a very light skinned hand scraped the wooden table it had been resting on. With a slightly more displeased sound the girl spoke:

"If what you have told me is true, then she… is hesitating now. What once was so determinate and… pure… has been tainted. The seed of doubt has been planted in her…"

"That would be one way of saying it, I would rather use the expression 'she realizes that there's a crossroad ahead'," the long rabbit-eared gentleman replied.

The owner of the pale hand was sitting in front of an old round table, possibly from 18th century with a matching set of 4 chairs. The table seemed to have dozens of older scrapes, just like the ones that had appeared on it a few seconds ago. The lapine gentleman was standing behind and slightly left from the much shorter girl who seemed to be suppressing her anger.

"May I inquire what you will be doing now milady?" the rabbit-demon broke the silence.

She turned her head and stared with her one bright yellow eye to the rabbit's slanted eyes. Her long white hair flowed over her chest like the finest of silk veils and the white rose accessories with vines on both sides of her head created two thin and long strands of hair, accentuating the beauty of her hair.

She leaned on her slender hand, still staring at the demon. Her other eye was covered with an eyepatch with yet another white rose and its vines decorating it, matching with her attire, which was only slightly pinkish in colour to highlight her pale skin and white hair.

Even Laplace's Demon had to admit, her stare was piercing. That one eye along with the expressionless face made him turn his face away from the doll. If someone dared to doubt Rozen's skill, one look in that eye would surely kill any disbelief down from its roots.

"I'll do it myself."

The demon's head quickly turned back to the doll. Not sure whether he heard right, despite his long ears he was tempted to ask her to repeat the words but the girl had already guessed his intentions from the furry face, which rarely showed any clear emotion.

"Now that Suigintou is useless… I guess I'll have to do it myself then… it's a pity, I was hoping to become one with her again… we were together the longest you know."

The sound of her voice felt oddly glad, even though she had just been irritated by Suigintou's "tainting". However, this wasn't the main reason why the gentleman had been surprised.

"Milady, might I remind you that the spirit can not leave the N-fields without a proper container?" he mentioned politely.

"Then there's two options, right? Either I find myself a body or then… they will come to me," the voice still had the same sparkling and gentle sound to it as she spoke.

"I see. Will you be using those two to lure them in here?" the demon interrogated.

"You mean these two?"

Suddenly two bright balls emerged from under the table, where she had kept them. Both of them had lost some of their original glow but they still were bright red with several halos surrounding them, defying physics by floating around her right hand. She let them go around her hand a few times until she pushed them over the table.

"No," she bluntly answered as she was inspecting them. After a short pause she continued:

"They still have an ace up their sleeve… that human," she bit her lip gently.

"Ah, you mean the young meister, Sakurada Jun?" Laplace's demon specified.

Still keeping a close eye on the mysticas, she seemed to think about something. Luckily for the curious demon, the silence didn't last long. Her head swiftly turned back to the rabbit. She beckoned him closer, as she grabbed one of the balls of light with a tight grasp.

"Hina Ichigo…" she quietly whispered and smiled at the sparkling ball of light. Licking her lips she looked at it with the eye of a predator, ready to swallow its victim.

"You do realize that you won't actually be able to become one with the mysticas without a body as a melting pot?" the demon reminded her.

"Of course! But that does not mean that I can't drain some of its power… and give a little… 'gift' of my own," she gently snapped back at him.

As she finished talking, she bit her teeth into the mystica, which flickered as if it was scared, trying to get away from the predator. After a few torturous seconds had passed, she started to exhale deeply and the mystica glowed greenish a few times, then returning back to its original glow. The white doll now licked her pink lips again as if she had enjoyed a feast like no other. She then repeated the process to Souseiseki's Mystica.

"Mmh… Delish!" the doll noted as she pushed the two Mysticas towards the demon.

"Milady?" the demon hesitated.

"I gave them a hint of my venom… it will feed power back to the medium, poisoning him slowly…" she explained casually.

"Aren't you forgetting something, milady? Once they receive the mysticas, they are again free to bond with anyone. Knowing Souseiseki, she would surely go back to the old watchmaker and it's possible that the berry would go back to it's original picker," Laplace's demon stated.

"That's likely to happen… but you see, to lesser mediums such as the old man and the 'picker' you mentioned, the effects will be much worse. When they go down one by one, to who do you think both of them will go to?" she explained mischievously.

"I see. Why are you giving these to me then, milady?" he inquired again.

"You can make sure that they get them… but don't let them find those two too easily, you don't want to draw any suspicions, do you?" she suggested.

"Very well, I shall entertain them and myself then," the rabbit said as he accepted the mysticas and continued:

"I shall now take my leave, expect me to make my move within a week or so."

As he was about to disappear into a hole he had made by cutting the spatial space, she had one final wish:

"The next time I see you, I hope you have something interesting with you… the last 'toys' you brought didn't last long."

Laplace's demon nodded and then bowed to give his farewells and disappeared into the rip. The sparkling doll was left alone in her N-field, which was oddly familiar to someone who had a large mansion in her heart as well. However, this mansion was not fit for living as it was partly collapsed and the rest was creaking under its own weight, ready to crumble into a heap of old rotten wood. The fields lacked any flowers, just spiky rose vines, oozing with black and green venom. The forests had no place in her N-field, other than the snags and the hollow trees which had turn grey over the time. Towards the everlasting dusk was nothing but wasteland with a large white crystal growing up here and there. It was a wasteland in which only the wind lived its fickle life, picking up dust and sand from the ground and whisking it away endlessly.

Nothing of beauty was left in this desolate place, except for its owner:

The pure white doll called Kirakishou.

* * *

Author's notes:

That sure took a while. I began writing it before I released the first chapter and then it just dragged and dragged on for a long time, before I really got into it and finished it. With this chapter I wanted to further stretch the beginning before a small time jump (some days), tell a bit about the dolls' N-fields, further let Suigintou "grow" and to introduce Kira with several questions which remains to be answered later. I based her off from what I knew from manga (which isn't much) and what I thought she'd be like (or wanted her to be, you decide that). Well, Bara did affect me a bit in her creation, but I figured that Kira displays a lot more emotions compared to her, so I based her mostly on the manga version.

I started to use italics and a few bolds here and there. Also, I decided to put short paragraphs right after the "describing" sentences to eliminate really short and somewhat silly looking paragraphs. Some I left as they were for added effect.

N-fields (or parts of them) were somewhat easy to come up with, I just took the most obvious choices for them. Yorumi proved useful for adding some details into Shinku's field, so a special thanks to her for that.

I noticed that I kind of liked writing the fighting scene, whether I was successful or not and even though I had to keep it short for plot's sake. I mostly used the powers you've seen in the anime already, so I didn't have to come up with much new. Luckily the two have a lot of different ways to use their powers, so it wasn't hard for me to pick the suitable ones.

I think the chapter's title is quite self explanatory, I changed it a few times, but the idea stayed the same.

Random "interesting" points:

"The otter knows". I just had to choose an otter, since it also knows what knowing is. Yes, it's a reference to something which has made me laugh so many times, so I just couldn't resist when I was choosing the animal for the scene.

Pachelbel's Canon is probably my favourite classical piece and for some reason I find it extremely easy to recognise from just few notes. It's amusing that the first time I heard it and learned its name was when I saw Death and Rebirth (Neon Genesis Evangelion) and I instantly fell in love with it.

Konpeki is pretty much equivalent word for Shinku in japanese, meaning "deep blue" or "azure". This word amused me the most from the choices, so I chose it for Shinku's nickname.

Thanks to:

Edgewalker for beta reading and support

Yorumi for translation help and info


	4. Chapter 2,5

**Chapter 2.5**

Das Haar, Das Ich Bürste

_The Hair That I Brush_

"Jun! You're doing it way too roughly –desu!" Suiseiseki whined needlessly on purpose. Jun wasn't too rough. In fact, he was doing it almost perfectly.

"Yes yes, I get it already!" frustrated Jun replied to the doll who was sitting on his left thigh. Her pleated beret was resting on her lap while the boy was trying his hardest not to displease her. With long strokes Jun brushed Suiseiseki's soft brown hair, which seemed to go on forever.

_She sure has long hair, I wonder how long it would take to grow on a real human? And these twirls in the end are a pain_. Jun tried to run the flat hairbrush along the twirls but quickly opted to grabbing the hair from where the twirls begun and pulling the hairbrush through, stretching the twirls straight, before letting them spring back to their original form.

Jun noticed that his leg was starting to get numb as he was grooming the twirls. _Geeze, she's kind of heavy… now that I think about it, she's huge for a doll, almost half of my own length! Shinku seems to be quite short and felt much lighter when I combed her hair._

"Suiseiseki, could you move just a little bit? My leg is going numb," Jun hinted with a somewhat painful look on his face.

Suiseiseki grumbled silently and edged herself a few inches from her previous spot. _What, is he implying that I'm heavy? This mini-human is so rude it makes me want to kick him in the chin! W-well, I can't say that he's not doing a decent job, but I can't let him get all cocky just because of that! _Suiseiseki gripped her beret.

"Wait a minute! You're concentrating too long on one spot -desu!" she snapped at Jun.

"Whaa? But… oh never mind…" Jun quickly gave up. This was not the time to be arguing, not while he was suffering his community service sentence. He moved on to the second half of her inhumanely long hair. _What was that again? She can be such a pain sometimes, I just wish that at least once she'd… _

Jun's heart jumped into his throat. A tangle. The third stroke had hit the shoals of the brown sea of hair. He tried to use a little bit more force but the brush did not budge. He tried pulling it back the way it came from but in vain. Slightly starting to panic, he tried directly taking the brush away, however it was completely stuck. _Oh god oh god, what should I do?! Looks like she hasn't noticed yet, but if she does, I'm toast! _

"Why did you stop –desu?" Suiseiseki turned her head to observe his face over her shoulder.

"I-It's nothing, really, I have everything under control!" Jun quickly responded.With a slightly confused expression Suiseiseki turned back to her original position, she was past caring for now.

_Whew, that was close_. Jun tried to use a lot more strength, but it just pulled and yanked Suiseiseki's head back a bit. This gave Suiseiseki yet another chance to complain about the quality of his service.

"Ow! Be careful –desu! My hair is not a rug you can pull and twist as you wish –desu! Even a puny human like you should know it!" Suiseiseki winced at him.

However, Jun was barely listening. He was too busy trying to untangle the hairbrush from the hair. He tried to use his fingers to pull small strands off, but it seemed to work the opposite way. _Ugh…looks like it's there for good. What am I going to do? Heh, I wonder if I could hide it in her hair?_ Jun tried covering the hairbrush a bit, but it was too obvious. The red hairbrush with white flowers painted on its back stood out too much, however, the handle disappeared pretty well since it was pretty thin. _Hmm…I have an idea and it just might work!_

"Say Nori, didn't you have two of these?" Jun waved at Nori.

"Yeah, I think so," was her reply.

"Could you bring it to me?" he asked.

"Why do you need a second hairbrush –desu?" Jun's peculiar question had raised Suiseiseki's interest.

"Err… two brushes, twice the speed!" Jun quickly made up a half-witted reason. Although Suiseiseki had her suspicions, she let this one pass with only a raised eyebrow and an angry stare at Jun.

Soon Nori came with the second hairbrush and a plateful of cookies, which she offered to the dolls. She handed the hairbrush to Jun and placed the plate on the living room table. Quickly Jun brushed the rest of the second half, avoiding the tangled area. He then placed the second brush around the same height as the other one was, but on the first large strand he had groomed. He gently tied the hairbrush with Suiseiseki's hair and hid the rest of it so that only the red backside and white flowers were showing. _Perfect! This ought to do it!_

"Suiseiseki, I'm done!" he happily exclaimed.

"About time –desu!"

Suiseiseki jumped down and quickly went to see herself from the mirror. Everything seemed to be in place. _But what are those? _Suiseiseki noticed two red flower patterned items in her hair.

"They are… uh, hair accessories! I placed them there while brushing your hair," Jun tried to cover his anxiety. Suiseiseki inspected these "accessories" carefully.

"I-I guess they are okay –desu," Suiseiseki stuttered a bit to contain her happiness. It seems Jun had done exceptionally well this time, but her pride didn't allow for much more praises. She continued:

"I guess I can forgive you just this one time –desu."

Jun sighed from relief and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He noticed Shinku staring at him intensely. _Oh boy, I guess it's not over just yet. _

"Jun. Are you done with her?" Shinku asked crossly.

"Eh… yeah I guess so," Jun replied with a new cold sweat breaking on his forehead.

"Then you can probably do as good job fixing my dress as you did with grooming her hair, can't you?" Shinku's voice seemed to carry a bit of jealousy in it.

"But it was your idea, wasn't it?" the boy tried to cover himself.

"Quiet you. We'll take this to the upstairs, get your tools and follow me," Shinku commanded as she pranced away. With a sigh, Jun soon followed her and spent the rest of the evening and part of the night, trying to repair the dress and thus satisfy the needs of this even prouder and more demanding doll.

* * *

Author's notes:

This chapter brewed from the part of 2nd chapter which I left "unfinished" on purpose to not add way too much stuff on the actual chapter, it was getting quite long already and I think that adding 2 pages about this would've broken the flow. I didn't really intend for this to be comedic in nature at all, but I decided to add a hint of that into it as well, mostly because I got stuck on what to write after I got into the middle point of this minichap. I actually wrote this in way under 2 days, but there was a long pause between the two days when I was trying to figure out what to add into it really. I knew what I was going to write but how I was going to do it was another matter.

Nothing special about the name though, I wanted a bit more poetic name for the chapter, since I was originally thinking about more of a non-comedic minichap, but even after I changed my plans a bit I liked it and decided to keep it.

Thanks to:

Edgewalker for beta reading and support

Yorumi for translation help


End file.
